Ike Quarles and his hired killers had served notice on Brad - drift or die! "I'm about through drifting," Brad said slowly. "I was thinking about taking up a homestead." Then he was silent, watching them sit on their horses, waiting for the twitch of a hand - the sudden move that would explode this whole valley into murderous, bullet-screaming range war!

Today's the most glorious day of Henry W. Halloran's intermittently honest life. Onward he rides to San Francisco and a dream of rich widows, soft beds and, most glittering of all, Halloran's Music Hall. But in the saga of Horse-Shy Halloran, one thing or another is sure to block his trail . . .

When Deputy US Marshall Dan Miller arrived in Jefferson, Idaho Territory, the Salt-Lick war was already in the making. When he'd been there a week, US Marshall Fred Clampett was ambushed and nearly killed, leaving Dan the only lawman. It was Dan's hard logic which prevented bloodshed - till the last day when his own blood got spilt.

Arizona Jim Silver had to find Rap Bender, Judge Bender's missing son - the same Rap Bender who had joined guns with Silver's oldest and deadliest enemy. But when the legendary Silvertip finally caught up with Bender, they shared a common enemy - ever since Bender's partner double-crossed him by trying to kidnap his woman. Now it was up to the two men to catch the man Silver had pledged to kill - for Silver's honor and his life!

Ross Logan was back at Horseshoe Ranch - after 15 years in jail for his wife's murder. Logan was back to find the real killer. Yet Horseshoe Ranch had been sold to Caine, Logan's best lead to the murderer. But before Logan could make him talk, somebody bushwhacked Caine and the whole town started screaming for Ross Logan's blood . . .

Jeff Ardell was a friend of Big Ben Shortt. But when Shortt got land-greedy and brought in the merciless hired guns to murder the shirt-tail ranchers, Ardell strapped on his Colt .44 and led the homesteaders into war in Sandoval County.

Sam Cary's arch-rival Mark Stockwell had been running guns to the Indians, a hot-blooded young warchief was stirring up the tribes and the cavalry had already pulled out. But Sam was a fighter with a lot at stake. The first wagons were outside the sallyport when the thundercloud of warriors burst upon the fort . . .

Black Pete became Slade's co-partner. Sheriff Trayner tried to warn Slade but wound up fighting for his life. Marshall wrote a will in blood, with Slade the reluctant beneficiary. The undercover Texas Ranger battles six-gun treachery to save his friends and the border country from the vicious terror of a killer-crazy outlaw.

Jim Bannister lived with the shadow of a rope upon him. For now under the assumed name of Jim Bryan he was temporary marshal in Morgan Valley, a town that he had felt easy in - until he found his own Wanted poster lying in full view on the floor of his office. He braced himself for a showdown with his unknown enemy and waited.

Jeff Dawson's father, known as the Lobo, had been accused of stealing the payroll of the 3B spread. 'Gospel' Cummings aimed to befriend the Lobo's whelp, and there was a young girl who also believed in him. But their feeble voices were drowned out by the roaring guns and unshucked hardware which called Jeff an owlhooter.

When Steve Ware came home, proud of his new rank as a Ranger, Verde County greybeards refused to treat him as anything but a cowboy. Ware couldn't fight back as he would if he were still a cowboy; he could only wait for a chance to prove himself. The chance came when Fyeback, the storekeeper, was mysteriously murdered.

Gus Widner and his brother had come through badlands and deserts to reach Harry Boswick's ranch. Now they wanted to collect the fifty bucks a head they'd been promised for their horses. But before he could pay them, Boswick was shot. Someone was playing dirty. Gus didn't like welchers. He'd put his life on the line to prove it.

With the single exception of Chance Abelard, every rancher joined the Cowmen's Protective Association. Besides the threat of force, the Association meant to black-list Abelard's Two C Ranch. It was a tough deal, but Abelard knew he was right and meant to prove it - even if someone got hurt in the bloody fight that loomed ahead.

Over a rugged pass came Brad Hunter driving his Tall T trail herd. He waited until others moved, until grim Newt Norton took the warpath, until the Sloping S ranch had disintegrated. Then he stepped in to take a leading hand, only to find that the hate he carried in his heart was never his own, and that the trail of life, for him, led back to Texas.

The Amigos, Mexican revolutionaries, were being used as a front for Cass Borman's slick rustling operation. Borman's gang was made up of the worst killers on either side of the border. But into this group came someone new. They tried to bully Pete Galahad - at first. Then they became afraid of him. There was the smell of death about him . . .

Wayne Carrol is wasting away in a Fort Yuma hotbox when his wife cuts a deal with the corrupt warden: Wayne can go free if she'll snitch when he leaves town. The warden's cohort, a brutal U.S. Marshal, wants Wayne to lead them to a more interesting quarry - $60,000 army payroll that he stole and stashed before landing in jail.

Loner Jim Allen became a killer called the White Wolf - but his twin Jack is a feared sheriff. Around the town of Basin, ranchers are losing horses to rustlers, and men are being murdered. They call Jack to eliminate the predators, but Jim assumes his identity and the White Wolf becomes Basin's sheriff. Will Jack let his brother go free so they can catch their prey together?

To the Trapp boys, Bowie Candler was a no-good thief, and once they ripped the hide off him, they dragged him back to their ranch for more. But old man Trapp offered Bowie a job. Trouble sure was brewing between Bowie and the Trapp boys - trouble that could only end with bullets flying.

He was called Niño, the Apache Kid. He'd been the finest trailer in the enlisted Apache Scouts. Now he was the most feared and hunted fugitive in the Arizona territory. He was the last warrior, and his savage duel with the U.S. Cavalry created a legend as bold as Cochise and Geronimo.

Gambler and gunfighter Rogate "Rogue" Bishop figured Mexico, some three hundred miles off, was his shortest jump out of Texas. On the way, when trouble explodes at the Hatchet Ranch, the temptation for one last troubleshooting job proves too great. Before long, the blast of six-guns rips across the valley!

Someone had betrayed an Army battalion of innocent men - and they now lay dead, massacred, with useless guns in their hands. Captain Bob Pryor, sometimes known as the Rio kid, followed the bloody trail to Dodge City, where the all-powerful gun lords were plotting an even greater evil. The Rio Kid was heading for a cattle town shootout - with the deck stacked against him.

Farmington hadn't seen a shooting in six years. Then Dan McQuade hit town. Sixty minutes later there was a badge on his shirt, violence in the streets and blood on his hands. Farmington erupted into a blaze of gunfights, and it took an iron marshall to keep the town from being shot right off the map.

With his wound not yet healed, Jim Gary sighted the town of Antler just when it looked impossible to continue. Maybe it meant his luck was changing. Maybe he could get some rest, and then break away in a different direction . . . But fate had played a grim joke, because Antler, Nevada, was all primed to become Jim Gary's Boot Hill.

Jake Glendon's gang of opium smugglers had turned a deputy's badge into a death warrant. But when the Three Mesquiteers rode off after discovering the body, they rode into one of the toughest cases in their career of unofficial outlaw-busting. The Glendon gang was far from dead. Six-shooters barked and blood was spilled . . .